who was roused from his hideous agony of soul at four bells,
morning, to go on deck for his watch, ventured as near the engine-room
door as he dared, for the rain was soaking his meager garments and
the red glow from within was grateful. The ship's pump was clanking, a
circumstance in no way alarming, because the huge schooners of the coal
trade are racked and wrenched in rough water.

The second mate came to the engine-room, lugging the sounding-rod to the
light in order to examine the smear on its freshly chalked length.

He tossed it out on deck with a grunt of satisfaction. "Nothing to
hurt!" he said to the engineer. "However, I'd rather be inside the capes
in this blow. The old skimmer ain't what she used to be. Johnson, do
you know that this schooner is all of two feet longer when she is loaded
than when she is light?"

"I knew she was hogged, but I didn't know it was as bad as that."

"I put the lead-line on her before she went into the coal-dock this
trip, and I measured her again in the stream yesterday. With a cargo
she just humps right up like a monkey bound for war. That's the way with
these five-masters! They get such a racking they go wrong before the
owners realize."

"They'll never build any more, and I don't suppose they want to spend
much money on the old ones," suggested the engineer.

"Naturally not, when they ain't paying dividends as it is." He stepped
to the weather rail and sniffed. "I reckon the old man will be dropping
the killick before long," he said.

Mayo knew something of the methods of schooner masters and was not
surprised by the last remark.

In the gallant old days, when it was the custom to thrash out a blow,
the later plan of anchoring a big craft in the high seas off the
Delaware coast, with Europe for a lee, would have been viewed with a
certain amount of horror by a captain.

But the modern skipper figures that there's less wear and tear if he
anchors and rides it out. To be sure, it's no sort of a place for a
squeamish person, aboard a loaded schooner whose mudhook clutches
bottom while the sea flings her about, but the masters and crews of
coal-luggers are not squeamish.

Mayo, glancing aft, saw two men coming forward slowly, stopping at
regular intervals. The light of a lantern played upon their dripping
oilskins. When they arrived at the break of the main-deck, near the
forward house, he recognized Captain Downs and the first mate. The
second mate stepped out and r